Oculus VR has revealed the latest iteration of its Oculus Rift developer kit at the Game Developers Conference, and is now accepting pre-orders for the upgraded virtual reality headset. Development Kit 2 (DK2) is based on the updated Crystal Cove prototype the company demonstrated at CES in January, and introduces a number of new features for developers to take advantage of.

DK2 updates the panel used in the original to a low-persistence OLED display, allowing for a resolution of 960x1080 per eye, refresh rates of up to 75Hz, and persistence as low as 2ms, in order to lessen motion blur and judder problems from earlier designs. Its optical system allows for a 100-degree field of view, and it connects to a host computer using a 10-foot detachable cable with HDMI 1.4b and USB 2.0 connections.

Oculus Rift Development Kit 2

In order to help reduce latency issues with the image and tracking, it has a latency testing system built into the headset. Tracking the headset's motion has also been improved to take into account the movement of the head in space as well as the direction it is facing, via an external camera that tracks infrared LEDs on the device. This in theory allows for players to raise their heads or tilt to the side to look around a wall, or to duck in games.

Developers used to working with existing game engines will see out-of-the-box support for the Unreal Development Kit, Unreal Engine 4, and Unity 4, while the Oculus SDK continues to offer source code and documentation that works on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

The Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 is available to buy for $350, and is expected to ship to developers in July.

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